ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that American families are racially and ethnically diverse in ways that have great significance to family programs and that some racial and ethnic groups have more capital accumulation than others; therefore, family programs can rarely be solely financed and administered within these latter groups. It argues that there are better and worse ways to render needed services, and that in the category of "better" ways is included sensitivity to the cultural ecology of participating families. American social history, special family programs were developed and piloted with poverty-level families, regardless of their racial or ethnic background. Important differences between black and white families have been identified through basic research, differences that challenge the assumptions and beliefs about black American children and families upon which programs had been based. The structured curriculum did not directly stress maternal and family development.
